Which school do you want to support?
California's students score below their peers in other states. Can we at least take solace in how U.S. schools compare to those in other countries?
Two major tests compare the learning of students around the world. According to both of them, American students are not at the head of the class.
Every three years, PISA (the Programme for International Student Assessment) tests a sample of 15 year old students in over 70 countries in reading literacy, science and math. (In case you are wondering, "PISA" is pronounced like the name of the leaning tower.) In 2018, among the 35 major developed countries participating, American students scored about average in science and reading and below average in math.
Are these lackluster results new? Well, no. The US has trailed the PISA leaders for a long time. Many of the countries that tend to rock the test are in Asia. The US also routinely scores lower than Canada, Australia, the UK and Germany.
Could the PISA test be flawed? Another international test, TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), provides another benchmark.
How are TIMSS and PISA different? Glad you asked. Broadly, PISA emphasizes skills by asking students questions that require certain competencies. TIMSS, by contrast, emphasizes knowledge by asking questions that probe what students know. Rankings based on these tests tend to align more than they differ.
All over the world, brilliant people are working to make their schools great. By studying school systems in comparison to one another, researchers hope to find useful differences. Here are some of the major findings:
Key education strategies in countries with leading schools | |
---|---|
Strategy | Implication |
A clear strategy to improve performance and equity. | Great school systems do not happen by chance |
Rigorous and consistent standards across all classrooms. | This is what Common Core strives to provide. |
High quality teachers and school leaders. | Make the teaching profession attractive and selective. Provide ongoing support to help staff collaborate and improve. |
Distribute funding in a way that provides more to schools and students that need it the most. | Access to early education, after-school tutoring, counseling, and health services all make a difference for students. |
Emphasize help for at-risk students and schools. | This includes immigrants, students living in poverty, and children with special needs. |
For a deeper dive into international comparisons of education systems, read What America Can Learn about Smart Schools in Other Countries by Amanda Ripley.
Not everyone agrees about the importance of PISA scores. Among the skeptics is education historian and activist Diane Ravitch:
The more we focus on tests, the more we kill creativity, ingenuity, and the ability to think differently. Students who think differently get lower scores. The more we focus on tests, the more we reward conformity and compliance, getting the right answer... International test scores don’t matter, except to tell us that if we really wanted to raise them, we would reduce poverty."
Some policy experts such as Martin Carnoy of the Stanford Graduate School of Education argue that comparisons among states are more relevant than comparisons with other countries. (This argument should provide no comfort to Californians, as discussed in Ed100 Lesson 1.1.)
Want to improve America’s future economy? Make education work better, for lots of kids.
There's nothing wrong with kids in other countries doing well in school, of course. Education benefits everyone, not just Americans. But the scores are not just of theoretical interest.
Educational achievement drives economic growth, and the PISA test has played an important role in proving it. In a 2010 study of educational attainment and national growth rates, Stanford professor Eric Hanushek found that educational success (as measured by the PISA exam) is impressively predictive of economic growth. Want to make America's future economy better? Make education work better, for lots of kids. If an investment enables kids to learn more successfully, in a way that can be confirmed by scores on the PISA exam, this analysis suggests that it makes sense to invest boldly. Investment in education can eventually pay for itself many times over.
Education systems are improving all over the world. When it comes to educational opportunity the world is growing flatter.
America’s universities are a source of economic strength, and they attract talent from all over the world. But they are far smaller than the universities in China and India. China's universities already educate far more students than America's do. As the college-going population continues to expand in China and India, pressures are mounting for those countries to develop research universities of global caliber. In the long run, America’s leadership in excellent quality higher education is certain to face increasing competition. There is nothing inevitable about America's leadership in this area.
China's universities educate far more students than America's do.
In a knowledge economy, top talent drives growth. America’s unique position as the global center for higher education is not fated to last forever. Growing numbers of America’s best and brightest will choose to attend research universities in China and India, in addition to the other way around.
The next lesson examines the cause of the strong connection between successful education and a successful economy. The nature of work has changed.
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codo August 23, 2018 at 8:55 am
Caryn August 23, 2018 at 11:12 am
Birdstomper May 4, 2018 at 4:57 pm
Pamela Wright April 16, 2018 at 3:10 am
Jeff Camp - Founder April 17, 2018 at 12:55 pm
Carol Kocivar December 2, 2017 at 11:53 am
http://hechingerreport.org/u-s-ranks-no-13-new-collaborative-problem-solving-test/
Carol Kocivar November 4, 2017 at 2:16 pm
http://ncee.org/2017/10/statistic-of-the-month-just-how-far-behind-are-the-most-at-risk-u-s-students/
Lisette October 3, 2017 at 12:20 pm
Carol Kocivar July 1, 2017 at 4:32 pm
a commitment to professionalizing teaching. The research looks at recruitment, preparation and induction, professional work environments, and elevating the status of teaching.
Read the full report: Empowered Educators
Meilani Hendrawidjaja May 8, 2017 at 12:36 pm
May 3, 2017 at 11:19 am
School standard should be more uniform.
Jeff Camp January 12, 2017 at 10:32 am
Jeff Camp January 11, 2017 at 3:54 pm
Carol Kocivar December 27, 2016 at 3:37 pm
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/top_performers/2016/12/how_massachusetts_built_a_world-class_school_system.html
Carol Kocivar December 27, 2016 at 3:20 pm
"Why China Isn't Winning: American Higher Ed Is Still Much, Much Better" A major factor says David Lundquist in the Atlantic is America's extracurricular advantage. "A narrow concept of learning is prioritized over wider notions of personal growth common to many Americans."
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/why-china-isnt-winning-american-higher-ed-is-still-much-much-better/253183/
Jeff Camp - Founder June 8, 2016 at 11:32 pm
krishnaniyer June 5, 2016 at 1:54 pm
krishnaniyer June 5, 2016 at 1:51 pm
dgaarhus February 21, 2016 at 10:30 pm
Sincerely,
Dr.Deborah Aarhus, Ed.D.
Jeff Camp - Founder November 8, 2015 at 4:06 pm
Pamela Luk November 5, 2015 at 2:40 pm
And now the US has gotten wrapped in worrying more about test scores and not allowing teachers to assess and assist their students as they see fit and in a create manner. Anyone interested in this topic might want to check out the book "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon?" by Yong Zhao. It's next on my reading list.
rxc2674 September 26, 2015 at 10:33 pm
Jenny N September 22, 2015 at 3:33 pm
arienneadamcikova April 20, 2015 at 10:09 pm
jenzteam February 27, 2015 at 6:24 am
Jeff Camp - Founder February 27, 2015 at 3:52 pm
hetds June 13, 2015 at 2:01 pm
Students!
Long overdue!
Jeff Camp - Founder June 21, 2015 at 12:41 am
jenzteam February 27, 2015 at 6:18 am
Interesting quote. My son is autistic and is brilliant. However, he can't pass a standardized test. No. Matter. What. But he has straight A's in all classes. He can build a computer in a couple of hours. Why are we still doing standardized testing? The answer is so that we have a report card showing how well we are doing as a whole, not how intelligent or innovative each individual is. Portfolios would be a better measure of what a student has gained. I go above and beyond telling my kids not to worry about scores. That is a poor measure of what they are capable of in the real world.
Jeff Camp - Founder February 27, 2015 at 3:49 pm
Marcia Jarmel March 7, 2011 at 8:58 pm
Sherry Schnell January 22, 2015 at 9:11 am
Jeff Camp - Founder January 22, 2015 at 9:39 pm
lildeb1971 February 7, 2015 at 8:52 pm
Jeff Camp - Founder June 21, 2015 at 12:15 am
hanushek March 2, 2011 at 11:25 am
The U.S. as a whole was outperformed by 30 countries, and was statistically indistinguishable from Russia. But California is another story. California schools are comparable to Israel, Italy, Portugal, and Turkey. (We did just nudge out Greece, the other economic basket case of Europe).
But, as the excuses go, doesn’t California face more educational challenges because of its large minority and immigrant populations? To look at this, we compared the proportion of advanced math performance for California students with a college educated parent to the average student in other countries (without regard to family education). Surely this elite group of California students would look better. And it does. There are only 17 countries who, as a whole, outperform California kids from college educated families. We now look as good as Estonia, Iceland, Slovakia, and some of the larger European countries such as France and the U.K. But remember, this is our best against their average.
California has been the engine of innovation for the U.S. Silicon Valley is known around the world. But, if that innovation continues in the future, it is likely to be done with imported labor from other states and other countries.
Jeff Camp - Founder June 21, 2015 at 12:23 am